Kansas and Wagner players take the field during the second quarter on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas fans who do not make the trip to Columbia, Missouri, to see the long-awaited renewal of the Kansas-Missouri rivalry in person will still have an opportunity to watch the game in a pumped-up stadium environment.

KU Athletics is hosting a watch party for the Border Showdown game on Saturday at the newly renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The event begins at 1:30 p.m., an hour before kickoff some 160 miles away at Faurot Field.

According to KU’s press release, “Fans will have the opportunity for self-guided tours throughout the stadium, a family fun zone on the turf, open field seating and special performances and appearances by the KU spirit squad and band.” Free parking will be available in lots 56, 57, 60, 92 and 94, with an hourly rate assessed in the Mississippi Street Parking Garage.

The two bitter rivals will meet on the football field for the first time since Nov. 26, 2011, a game that resulted in a 24-10 victory for Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium; the Tigers left for the SEC the following season, bringing a temporary end to the rivalry. KU and MU have not met at a campus site since 2006. Missouri holds a 56-55-9 edge in the 124-year-old series.

The Jayhawks enter Saturday’s contest at 2-0 after early-season victories over Fresno State (31-7) and Wagner (46-7), while Missouri won its first game against FCS foe Central Arkansas by a score of 61-6 on Thursday. Last year, the Tigers went 10-3 with a 27-24 victory over Iowa in the Music City Bowl.

SEC pregame show headed to Columbia

Saturday’s game will be televised on ESPN2, and while ESPN’s national pregame show “College GameDay” opted to spotlight the Michigan-Oklahoma game (and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” is headed to Iowa State-Iowa in the meantime), the SEC Network’s own show “SEC Nation” will be on site in Columbia.

The program airs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, with host Laura Rutledge, radio personality Paul Finebaum and analysts Roman Harper, Jordan Rodgers and Tim Tebow.

It will be preceded by the hourlong “Marty & McGee” program in which hosts Marty Smith and Ryan McGee highlight “the intersection of southern lifestyle and college football to bring viewers the latest headlines, Hillbilly and otherwise, across the SEC landscape,” according to the SEC’s press release.

Missouri will also play host to “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Friday afternoon.